Scheduled to die by lethal injection at 7 p.m. Thursday, condemned killer Hubert Lester Michael Jr.'s day began with his early morning transfer from Greene state prison to Rockview state prison and a cell near the death chamber.

Trista Eng was shot by Michael in 1993.

Still alive, his day ended shortly after 8:30 p.m. when the U.S. Supreme Court declined to lift his stay of execution that had been issued Thursday afternoon.

In between, there was a flurry of briefs filed before the Third Circuit Court of Appeals and then the U.S. Supreme Court.

Michael, now 56 and formerly of Leymone, pleaded guilty in 1995 to the 1993 murder of Trista Eng, 16, of Franklin Township. He offered no mitigating reasons at his sentencing hearing and was sentenced to death.

A Department of Corrections spokesperson said Thursday that Michael was "somewhat emotional" during his move to Rockview but was "very quiet, polite and composed" after being placed in a cell.

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He had a breakfast of French toast, orange juice and coffee, read the Bible and a newspaper and listened to the radio.

Early Thursday, the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office filed a brief in the Third Circuit Court arguing against granting a stay.

When that failed and the stay was granted, the Commonwealth turned to the U.S. Supreme Court, asking that court to lift the stay.

Thursday afternoon and evening, at media briefings outside of Rockview state prison, reporters were kept posted to the fact that execution was on hold until the Supreme Court ruled on the commonwealth's request.

According to the Department of Corrections, Michael's death warrant, signed in September by Gov. Corbett, expired at midnight.

If the stay was lifted anytime before then, the execution could proceed.

Before the Supreme Court, the commonwealth argued that Middle District Court Judge John E. Jones III erred when he granted Michael a certificate to appeal his case to the Third Circuit. The commonwealth maintained that Jones improperly granted the certificate without specifying what appeal issues Michael had.

It also said the Third Circuit erred when it granted a stay of execution based on what the commonwealth claimed was a faulty certificate of appeal.

The defense responded with the argument that the Jones had recognized that issues in Michael's case "are debatable and deserve appellate review."

The defense also argued that while the Third Circuit took note that Jones had not specified the issues that led him to grant the certificate of appeal, that court also said it was correctable and not a fatal flaw that would invalidate the appeal certificate.

Around 8:40 p.m., the attorney general's office sent emails that the Supreme Court had declined to intervene and that the stay would remain in place.

A Department of Corrections spokesperson said Michael had been informed of the court's ruling.

Michael's case returns to the Third Circuit Court, which earlier Thursday directed Jones to identify the specific issues that led him to grant the certificate of appeal.

Jones is to respond to the Third Circuit Court within 14 days of accepting briefs on the matter from the commonwealth and defense.

Most recent Pa. executions

Gary Heidnik: Executed July 6, 1999. Convicted of murdering two women in 1987. He was found to have kept at least six women captive in his Philadelphia basement, where he serially raped and tortured them. Leon Moser: Executed Aug. 15, 1995. Convicted of murdering his ex-wife and two daughters outside a suburban Philadelphia church on Palm Sunday in 1985.

Keith Zettlemoyer: Executed May 2, 1995. Convicted in Dauphin County of the 1980 murder of Charles DeVetsco, a friend who planned to testify against him in a robbery trial.

The last York County execution case

Curtis Sipple was the first and last person from York County to be executed at Rockview state prison, according to the York County Heritage Trust and local historian Jim McClure.

Sipple was executed in an electric chair in 1919, McClure wrote in "Never to be Forgotten."

Sipple, 19, killed two bunkmates with a metal bar as part of a robbery plan, McClure wrote in "Never to be Forgotten." The murder happened in Cly in the northeastern part of York County.